It is heartbreaking that oftentimes victims of domestic abuse have to reach their breaking point before they do something about it, enduring years of physical and mental pain in the process.
For the girlfriend of this Minnesota man, it took a shotgun to her face before she finally had the guts to report her abuser.
The final straw happened on their first day back from the hospital after giving birth to their child.
READ: Man threatens to kill wife in front of their kids
She was on the couch breastfeeding their newborn when her boyfriend Nicholas Lehmeier exploded. She wasn’t paying attention to him, he said and then fetched his shotgun, loaded it and aimed it at her and the baby.
He pulled the trigger.
The gun failed to go off. But the relentless man did not give up and took a second gun, this time a revolver.
“One bullet is all I need to end this,” he said.
The woman pleaded and asked him to let her put the baby in bed so the child would not be harmed. Lehmeier pulled the trigger. Thankfully his gun was aimed at the window.
READ: “My husband was strangling me because he wanted me dead”
The woman called the authorities for help soon thereafter. When the police arrived, they arrested Lehmeir.
Talking to the authorities, the woman’s friends and co-workers reported that the woman often had bruises and that Lehmeier controlled her private life as well as her finances.
The woman told reporters that she feared for her and children’s life after Lehmeier threatened them; that was why she never reported the abuse.
Am I in an abusive relationship?
Abuse comes in all forms; it isn’t expressed merely in the physical form. If you’re asking yourself, “Am I in an abusive relationship?” Here’s how you can tell:
Emotional Abuse. This happens when a husband or wife degrades, humiliates or manipulates his or her spouse using words or other emotional and psychological tactics.
Physical Abuse. This kind of abuse occurs when an abuser uses physical actions such as hitting, slapping, punching, kicking or choking. All these acts are meant to threaten or hurt a victim to keep him or her under his control.
Financial Abuse. It is exhibited by rigidly controlling their financial activities, sabotaging their jobs, making career-related decisions for them and stealing money from them.
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